Military Sealift Command (MSC) will launch a new data analytics platform this fall that will encapsulate a wide array of data tools available within MSC and put information right at the users’ fingertips.
The cloud-based data hub Data Analytics Environment (DAE) will replace the legacy system Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and integrate multiple MSC business systems, into a centralized data lake to help leaders, data analysts and employees work more efficiently.
“This is really going to be a game changer,” said Pete Pascanik, Data Science Director N93. “It’s going to provide a more accurate and fluent flow of data for leaders who make decisions and anyone else at the command who uses data to do their job.”
The DAE initiative began in 2021 under the management of MSC’s N9 Directorate, contracted through the N6 Directorate, with the mission of developing a program that will allow all MSC employees to examine data with flexible analytical toolsets, integrated development environments and supporting libraries that deliver detailed insight into the operations of MSC.
With a fleet of more than 130 ships, and staff of nearly 8,000 civil service mariners and employees, MSC has an abundance of data maintained separately by various directorates. DAE will ingest all of that data together where it can be edited for consistency, duplication, ambiguities and then be available for analysis, visualization and presentation to leadership.
“The data lake will consist of the most critical data at MSC and make that data available to everyone who needs to use and analyze it giving everyone access to information so they can do their reports for leaders with the most factual information,” said Clark Capshaw, Senior Operations Research Analyst, N931.
Capshaw says the DAE development is an N6 and N9 effort, but the end result is dependent on everyone at the command. What goes into the DAE ultimately depends on what users provide.
“Our data stewards are positioned to set the vision for their own data and its governance, setting rules for access and defining how it may be used throughout the command,” said Capshaw. “All of the things people care about – the things they’re reporting to leadership - if we have the data as a source of information then we want to take advantage of that and include it in DAE.”
DAE development has been an ongoing process of collaboration beginning with numerous focus groups where MSC’s data stewards discuss issues they are having with current business systems and how to eliminate them.
“We need to know what problems users are incurring now because the end result is having a data lake they can go into and query multiple systems to answer data questions free of errors,” said Tina Smidt, Business Intelligence Analyst N93. “We can bring in these systems as they are now, but that’s not what we want. We want to know what problems they are encountering and how we can correct them in order to better respond.”
Comparing DAE to the Internet and Google, Pascanik said the goal is to provide MSC with a user-friendly program that provides access to accurate and critical information as timely manner. He says it will be an ongoing process even after this fall.
“If you look at the Internet, it has gone through various iterations since it was introduced,” he said. “In September or October 2023 DAE should be launched and available for everybody. At this point we are depending on our data stewards to let us know their essential data fields so that we give them the system they desire. In essence, we want to give everyone such quick access to information that they can trust.”
“We want MSC to speak a data-driven language,” added Capshaw. “From the people who work aboard ships or ashore all the way up to the leadership. If we’re all speaking the same language, a data-driven language, we’re going to be able to provide better information to our leadership and we’ll be able to do our jobs, better, faster, more efficiently and less costly.”
Over the next few months, N9 will be distributing information on the progress of DAE through newsletters and the Sealift magazine, as well as information about upcoming training opportunities available to learn more.
| Date Taken: | 02.08.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.08.2023 12:48 |
| Story ID: | 438080 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 240 |
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This work, MSC to Launch New “Game Changing” Data Analysis Program this Fall, by Hendrick Dickson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
